More damning than Nixon's tapes

            Just 'cause he said it doesn't mean he said it.

            You mean saying he knowingly downplayed the dangers and dimensions of the virus?

            Yeah. Just 'cause he said what he said doesn't mean he said what he said.

            Yeah. Just ask Vice President Pence, who said Donald Trump didn't play down the virus.

            Um, Mike. That's what he told Bob Woodward: "I always wanted to play it down." Is this a language problem, Mike? Habla ingles?

            You and your supporters are shrugging off what our ears – and yours -- now tell us. Also, you appear to be affirming what most of us have assumed all along: When Trump's lips move for public consumption, he lies.

            But for some reason, to Bob Woodward in February he was candid. That is, if the voice we heard was Trump's. Surely Fox News talking heads have tossed around theories:

            "It could be Jimmy Fallon imitating him."

            "Could be Colbert or Trevor Noah. All do pretty good Trumps."

            The other defense, which is none: Trump didn't want to panic the public with accurate information.

              Such an even keel, this president. Never a hysterical word. Always keeps his cool.

            Well . . . OK. On to Defense No. 3: Trump decides the American people need to understand this pandemic thing. He channels his inner Churchill. Realizing the urgency of this matter, he summons Woodward, who's writing a book to be released in a few months. Then via those few people who read books, word of mouth will emanate. Disaster averted.

            The astuteness of this is debated by many a Republican this week, but not because Trump lied to you and me. Seventeen interviews? And tell truth? To the media?

            As Seth Meyers said, it's like Richard Nixon met Woodward in the parking garage and said, "Hello, Bob. Did you know I did Watergate?"

            Politico refers to Trump now as Shallow Throat.

            Enough Watergate comparisons.

            Watergate ended a presidency, but it didn't kill anyone, much less tens of thousands.

            Watergate didn't leave people with long-term lung damage and untold other problems.

            Watergate didn't put millions out of work.

            Watergate didn't strain health-care workers to the breaking point.

            Watergate didn't endanger essential workers each day they showed up for their minimum-wage jobs.

            Donald Trump didn't cause all this. (Neither did China.) He just lied about it.

            For public consumption, Trump compared the virus to the flu. Rush Limbaugh took the cue. Trump said it would go away with the heat. Sean Hannity took notes.

            Trump said it wasn't much of a threat to children.

            All lies and self-serving misdirection. Now we know, courtesy of Woodward's tapes, what Trump knew and when he knew it.

            Rats – another Watergate comparison.

            Mike Pence says that Trump's concern from the very start was the health and safety of the American people. If that were true, more American people would be alive today.

            But, of course, Trump's sole concern was his own survival.

            Nearly 200,000 Americans are dead. Millions are sick. Millions are jobless. And Trump's re-election is all his supporters care about as well.

            If they cared about public health and safety they would demand his resignation.

            If they listened to Woodward's tapes, they would be enraged to hear him refute everything about the virus that they were led to believe. That the virus was no worse than the flu. That masks are a joke. That it's all a Democrat hoax.

            But the Red Caps aren't mad at him. They're crowding at his feet, no masks, applauding his lies.

            By review: Just 'cause he said it doesn't mean he said it.

            Fake news.

            Longtime newspaperman John Young lives in Colorado. Email: jyoungcolumn@gmail.com.